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We are SO excited to announce that we are hosting a session at this year’sFutureMin Boston, October 16-18. FutureM brings a one-of-a-kind experience to Marketing and Media trendsetters by debating the cutting-edge development and future landscape of Marketing. The programs are unique, forward-thinking, and will challenge, integrate and bring to life what tomorrow holds for businesses in the digital age.

Our session “Better than RedBull: Converting Your Brand into an Entertainment Hub will be held on October 17th at 9:30 A.M. This interactive panel will involve YOU with our guest panelists Evan Rimer (Walden Media), Matthew Valentinas (Entertainment Legal Counsel) and Sharon Vosseler (FoA Entertainment). Come tell us a bit about your brand’s creative brief and we will pitch you social video ideas live on the stage!

As a valued member of the ZoomTilt community, we hope you’ll join us – register for FutureM today atFutureM.org.

Let’s face it, Hollywood and their blockbusters have been dominated by men for decades now. Television has given a slight rise to powerful female centric programming with shows like Weeds, Sex and the City, GIRLS, and The Big C, all of which is on premium, pay-for television.

Independent filmmakers have turned to the web to generate programming and stories that they believe is missing from the likes of Hollywood. Programming that can be made accessible to a much broader and larger audience. But with the likes of Machinima and Rooster Teeth it is safe to say that the “Hollyweb” is also favors a slight edge towards content that is generally considered male-centric.

Alas, we over here at ZoomTilt have stumbled upon the dynamic duo of Katie Shannon, writer/director and Audrey Claire Johnson actress/producer; both funny-gal extraordinaires. that are embarking on their first collaboration together: K&A, which stands for Karley and Alex.

Written and Directed by Katie Shannon of Thompson Films. Starring Audrey Claire Johnson and Ashley Elmi. Produced by Katie Shannon, Audrey Claire Johnson and Michael Madden.

@ZoomTilt:Ok, first off, this question is for Katie. Tell us about the concept of K&A? How did you come up with it?

@KDuffShannon: K&A is a comedy about the friendship between Karly (played by Johnson) and Alex (played by Ashley Elmi) as they navigate their complicated lives in the city of Boston. One of my favorite shows is “Sex and the City” because it is honest and truthful about women today and their relationships with one another. It reminds me of my relationship with my best friend [from college], who currently lives around the corner from me. However, their is one huge difference between us and the ladies of SATC; I’m gay and she is straight. A lot of the ideas for the series come from our relationship (not all but some!). For storytelling, it’s a character dynamic that hasn’t been explored all that much. When I hear or see something I think would be great for the show, I write it in my phone. If someone ever read the list, they would probably think I’m crazy!

@ZoomTilt: What makes Karly and Alex’s story different from some of the more popular female duos that are currently out there? (ex: “2 Broke Girls”)

@10ThousandHangs (Audrey’s Twitter): The combination of one straight and one lesbian lead protagonists is blatantly underexplored in sitcom format. Television comedies with a broad audience have found success with straight/gay leads, normally shown as leading/supporting man/man or man/woman. Because of the female straight/gay premise, I’m already interested in their history, their friendship, and their chemistry with other characters on the show.

@KDuffShannon: Both these characters don’t hold back. Their lack of caring what people think has allowed me to explore so many story lines. I’m partial to comedy shows like Family Guy and It’s Always Sunny Philadelphia for never apologizing for what they put out there and talking about topics that many of us think about, but are too afraid to bring up.

@ZoomTilt:What are the benefits of distributing the series online? What are also the challenges?

@KDuffShannon: Online distribution gives us the benefit of being able to reach anyone in the world and have a much broader audience for that. The challenging part, however, is to get people to discover it in the first place. Anyone who has a camera can make a web ddfseries these days. You need to think to yourself: what makes your [concept] different? Why should someone take time out of their day to watch? It’s also even more challenging with bigger and bigger names getting into the web series scene, so you really need to take the time and steps to make your concept stand out.

@10ThousandHangs: If you’re a creative artist in any medium, you will have challenges deciding on the best way for your work to be seen. Not just any way, the best way – and one that is financially doable. With K&A we’ve studied other projects that have been crowd funded, how they interacted with their audiences and where their content was eventually hosted. Its been a huge help.

@ZoomTilt: Interacting with audiences is important online, how are you both hoping that audiences will interact with K&A?

@KDuffShannon: I hope people find the show as funny as I think it is (obviously I’m partial). I hope people can see that females can be just as funny as men. And trust me…these two ladies are.

@10ThousandHangs: Goals would be to have a hefty number of subscribers on our YouTube channel and dialogue on social media about each episode as they are released. We’d also like our fans to share their stories about their exterminators with us, and, of course, get 1,000,000 signatures on to petition HBO to pick it up……..obviously.

@ZoomTilt: So, what are some points of the series you are looking forward to shooting? Can you give us some secrets about what to expect?

@KDuffShannon: I’m looking forward in shooting the episode “Doing Nice Shit For People” because in that episode Audrey’s character gets tasered. We read that episode during our auditions for the character of Alex, and her [Audrey] performing the act of being tasered made me laugh every single time.

Karley takes a much needed rest on Alex’s lap. (From L to R: Johson and Elmi)

@10ThousandHangs: There’s an episode about a rat in the apartment. I am paralyzed by rats, phobic to a traumatic degree. K&A stand and huddle on the couch while some weird stuff goes down off camera. It’s classic suspense, not seeing the “violence” on screen while we react in horror. I can’t wait to play that scene.

@ZoomTilt: What are some female-centric web-series out there that you enjoy?

@KDuffShannon: I was an intern on set once for the filming of The Guild, so I really enjoy that one. There was also a lesbian web series called 3Way, which was one of the funniest web series I have ever seen. It’s sad but the lack of female leads in web series is a reflection of what you see on television. Obviously as a female filmmaker you want to try to change that as much as you can. I’ve never made a project where female characters weren’t the focus and I plan to stick to that.

@10ThousandHangs: I worshiped Broad City, would die to have been on Delusional Downtown Divas by Lena Dunham. Other web sketch groups that do incredible work are Good Neighbor, Olde Payphone and Paulilu.

The admitted lack of female genres within the web series community is a reflection of the industry as a whole. I spend my energy focusing on women crushing the scene online, on television and back to feature length blockbusters. They are my inspiration when choosing projects, writing scripts, and aspiring to be a great comedic actress.

Touche. Thanks for your time ladies! We are happy to support you. Please let us know when we can expect the first episode!

Today, we’re pleased to announce the beta release of ZoomTilt Analytics – a self-service software tool for A/B testing videos to help users identify and optimize their top-performing video content. The goal of ZoomTilt Analytics is to help businesses and video creators:

Make better, more audience-targeted videos by compiling feedback and data from real, relevant viewers;

Make smarter decisions about what videos to create, how to edit them and how to release them; and

Increase video marketing return on investment.

The trial version of ZoomTilt Analytics, which allows experimenters to easily set up and run video A/B tests from YouTube, is now available as a free service on ZoomTilt.com. In addition, our ZoomTilt Analytics Premium service now gives brands, agencies and media companies the ability to create and customize video A/B tests around specific target audience profiles and marketing metrics.

We’re very excited to share ZoomTilt Analytics with you, we have plans to introduce lots of new features and capabilities, and we welcome any feedback or questions you’d like to share with us. Interested in learning more about the benefits of ZoomTilt Analytics Premium for your business? Contact us today to get started.

The online video production and online video advertising industry insiders were buzzing yesterday when this Tubefilter article was published announcing that 80-85% of video ads are skipped.

REELSeo responded and published this article, which asks the question, “are we too optimistic when it comes to online video advertising?”

Is everyone really as shocked as they are writing? Online video and video on demand services have allowed us to skip advertising for years now. Skipping advertisements is almost the pioneering purpose for why people have turned to watching online video in the first place. At least, my thought has always been:

“If I watch my video online than I can watch what I came to watch and that is it. I don’t need to sit through an ad that I know is intentionally trying to sell me something.”

First and foremost, however, I watch video online to be entertained. If I can’t skip an advertisement I am still pretty hell bent on watching a video, however I am just going to walk away really quickly and come back when the video is on.

I continuously search for the best in online video so that I can share with my friends and they can see that I am knowledgable of what is out there and also portray that I am a funny, witty and carefree kind of gal.

Due to an increasing use of tablets, smartphones and the like, mobile and online video numbers are on the rise according to this Business Insider article. I have to ask advertisers: is online video the “catch twenty-two” of advertising?

Since it seems inevitable these days that some thought needs to be given to online video but online video advertisements are only watched about 15% of the time, how can advertisers guarantee that their message is going to be viewed?

This is a call to big ad agencies and ad executives: Tell me, how do you feel about this? What are your plans to handle this? Do you think it will change? Can it and how will it?

I think the answer is simple, advertisers need to consider putting their dollars towards entertainment. Less ad focused content and more entertainment focused content will guarantee that your dollars are being spent wisely. Think about it. If I am going to watch a video, skipping an advertisement, you might as well find a way to make the entertaining video somehow your advertisement.

This week our Manager of Brand and Community Relations, Amy DePaola (also known on Twitter as @TheeAmyDee), dove into her first ever MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) with the YouTube Creator’s Academy.

Amy, who has produced several web based series, including 617 The Series and the second season of The Rookie Bartender, decided to let us in on some of the secrets that only 32,000 YouTubers are partaking in.

In lessons one through three, which were led by Tastemade’s SORTED Food, Amy learned the difference between subscribers and non-subscribers and how they effect “watch time” and “clicks.” Ultimately, it is subscribers who up your channels “watch-time” and the YTCA is divulging insight into how to increase your subscriber base. In fact, in the new welcome module that YouTube deployed, your subscribers and your non-subscribers see two different page set-ups. Non-subscribers are prompted with a welcome teaser video while subscribers are led right into a channel’s playlist and related content. Both of which creator’s can control.

In addition to how to gain subscribers and design/layout, Amy learned about branding, which brought some perspective as to how you should treat your YouTube page. That is if you are serious about making yourself or your creation about a business. Amy has mentioned that this experience has been motivating for her and she would love if you will follow her as she rebuilds her individual YouTube presence.

The auto industry is no stranger to viral video marketing. In fact, there is a reason why we chose this industry as our first industry of focus in the YouBrand Round Up.

Last week Crain’s Business Detroit published this article that discusses how marketers in the auto industry are focusing on delivering TV content that jumps to the “second-screen”; those devices hardly anyone can live without: lap-tops, tablets and mobile phones. It is proven that TV content drives internet search so the logic is that eyes that are watching advertisements on TV, especially ones that leave them with something to search for, or something that has “repetitiveness” and it just has to be watched again, will generate “second-screen” attention and more importantly it will be shared on “second-screen” platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Another Crain’s Business Detroit article highlights the “Top 10 viral auto ads” however, all the listed ads also began on television and only entered into the “second screen” sector following their television debut. Yet, in order to be considered “viral” they had to go to the second screen. Interesting.

It is fair to say that the auto industry considers a successful advertising campaign to have “unimaginable Superbowl like numbers,” and these days marketers have to look to the “second-screen” chatter to calculate these numbers accurately.

So, who is taking the brave and the incredibly smart leap over the budget-wasting step of television and heading straight to the “second-screen” from the auto industry. Here’s our YouBrand RoundUP: The Auto Edition:

What began as eight featured “original channels” promoted through the “YouTube Original Channels Series” now lists about ten channels that focus on topics that affect consumer opinions on their car/motorcycle purchases, fantasies and general knowledge.

On the Drive Channel, Swedish luxury car designer, Koenigsegg,had their own show which goes inside the meticulous process to create the car, which is a sleek, high-end, sports car, in nine-episodes.

The most recent video campaign in the auto industry accompanies Jaguar’s release of their first sports car in 50 years. The 12 minute short film that debuted online last month stars Homeland’s Damien Lewis and features a commissioned song by Lana Del Ray. The film itself only has about 43,000 views on YouTube while additional videos such as the behind the scenes and the making of have between 1,000 and 3,000 views.

This is nowhere near “viral” or the Superbowl like numbers that advertisers in the auto industry like to see but there is a lot we can learn from this. I’ll explain further.

Audi and BMW, been there, done that:

In 2010, Audi released an original mini-series The Next Big Thing which starred Justin Timberlake. Big Thing, unlike its predecessor BMW’s The Hire, was told serially, meaning you had to watch the episodes in order to understand the story, whereas Hire was a series of different stories with the same lead character portrayed by Clive Owen.

Both Big Thing and Hire had views that dipped into the several hundred thousands. It is hard for me to sit here in 2013 and even state a fair and accurate number because fans of the cars as well as the actors and the series’ themselves also uploaded the episodes to their channels as well to share (key word here) with their friends.

Ford has a decent amount of original content that they have been churning out over the past few years. Late last year they announced the launch of their original series to accompany the release of the new Ford Escape, Escape My Life.The series has over 2,000 subscribers to its channel and over 1 million views. Its channel page has added features that allow viewers to create their own content that relates to the series, such as the Barry memes, of which one can assume that when it is shared (huh, huh, that word again!) it will spark the interest of others and they’ll click through a bunch of hyperlinks to find out where the source of the meme was – and oh – “ta-da! Its part of Escape My Life…that’s weird I was just thinking about a new car . . “

I really enjoy the series over the other’s that I’ve discussed in this YouBrand RoundUP but that is because I am a woman, who works in the film industry that needs a car that is not only functional for my work but is comfortable, stylish and affordable (I’m single too.).

At first glance, one would say that Jaguar “did it wrong” because they chose to make a 12 minute film as oppose to a short episode no more than 4-5 minutes. Something shorter would’ve gotten them more views, no?

I wouldn’t consider Jaguar a failure based on their low number of views. The Jaguar F-type clearly has a very niche customer. And there aren’t many of them. The average consumer isn’t purchasing a sports car, let alone a luxury sports car. Those guys, well, they are like Damien Lewis in a gray suit and tie, classy, educated and fantasize about beautiful Latina women.

I’ll stop beating around the bush: Visual marketing and advertising these days needs to go beyond showing your consumers what the product is or who uses it. Brands, such as the brands listed here in our YouBrand RoundUp: Auto Edition have gone beyond the traditional commercial that does so and have told the stories of their consumers, or at least how their consumers want to see themselves.

I’m just saying. I’m a quirky, fun-loving, humorous, late twenty-something who drives a crossover very similar to the Ford Escape.

And while Meeker focuses the bulk of the report’s attention on sound, mobile and wearable tech, the 2013 Internet Trends Report also gives a big nod to the importance and evolving presence of video in the digital landscape. So without further adieu, here are 5 key lessons on the future of video courtesy of Mary Meeker (with some analytical interpretation via ZoomTilt).

Lesson #1: Mobile isn’t just a “second screen”

We are moving beyond an era where your smart phone is just the thing you use to Tweet during TV commercial breaks. The majority of mobile device use occurs somewhat counter-intuitively within people’s homes, the average phone user checks social media on their phone nine times per day, and mobile as a share of total internet traffic is showing exponential (not linear) growth.

Lesson for the video community: If you work with digital video content, expect your content to be consumed (and hopefully shared) via mobile. Whether it’s a Twitter Vine or longer-form content, mobile is not just a second screen – in many cases it is a primary screen, so make sure (1) your content is discoverable on mobile and (2) anticipate the viewing experience on a small screen (potentially with poor audio and a time-constrained viewer). See also ReelSEO’s great article on 5 ways to optimize your video for mobile viewing.

Lesson #2: YouTube is a social network (and a big one, at that)

In addition to being a subsegment of the world’s largest search engine, YouTube is also the world’s second largest social network. YouTube is also demonstrating user growth at rates much higher than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.

Lesson for the video community: try actually being social both within and outside of YouTube. On YouTube: be active in the comments feed, comment on other videos you like and response to comments and messages about your own videos. Outside of YouTube: network and collaborate with other creators to formulate great original content, help get your work more exposure and get better economies of scale with audience-building.

Lesson #3: Short-form video is exploding in popularity

In large part thanks to the momentum of Twitter’s Vine, Meeker points out that short-form video creation and consumption is growing rapidly:

However, short-form video presents both a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous challenge. Because of the format, successful Vines must be immediately and impressively visual, and the medium makes telling a story, developing characters or provoking audience emotional engagement highly challenging. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of vines get very low engagement, with few views and even fewer retweets. By comparison, the Vine’s that break through and achieve a degree of viral lift typically showcase highly clever, thoughtful cinematography optimized for the animated GIF-like repetitive format.

Lesson for the video community: despite what your agent or agency might tell you, Vine isn’t the holy grain for your branding, social media or content creation needs: it is a tool, and one that must be used wisely. Think your audience really wants to watch your Vine? No, your audience would rather sit down and watch a full-length episode of Mad Men with riveting plot development, so if you’re going to start cranking out Vines do your best to get creative with it and experiment.

Lesson #4: America does not equal the internet

One of the most awesome lessons from Meeker’s presentation is just how international the internet has become. Compared to America’s 244 million internet users (at a population penetration of 78%), India already has 137 million internet users at a population penetration of only 11%. Meanwhile, China boasts 564 million internet subscribers, while Brazil is coming on strong with 88 million web-connected people. Also, interestingly according to Meeker, we don’t share as much content on the internet as other cultures:

Lesson for the video community: Think about an international audience when you’re creating and distributing digital video and look into things like foreign language programming or captioning on your YouTube content, both areas where Machinima typically does a great job.

Lesson #5: Content is becoming more democratic (and, thereby, more competitive) than ever before

Wondering why nobody’s watching your videos? Well, it might be because of this, but it probably also has something to do with the fact that 100 hours per minute of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. Talk about a flood of content that’s showing no sign of slowing down.

Lesson for the video community: be really deliberate about the content you create a give people a compelling reason to watch it. The best type of content to achieve this is video that creates value for the viewer – ideally a combination of emotional value (e.g., funny, exciting, shocking) and relevant information value.

Learn anything else from Mary Meeker’s presentation? Agreed or disagreed with anything we wrote above? Feel free to drop us a line in the comments below or give a Twitter shoutout to @ZoomTilt.